Carla Cassidy
Author of Part of the Bargain [with bonus book: 'To Wed and Protect']
About the Author
Carla Cassidy was born in Kansas. She is a popular American writer of over 80 romance novels since 1988. She also penned a fantasy novel as Carla Cook. Carla Cassidy grew up in a very small town in Kansas, where her father was an educator to children. She has been a professional cheerleader, an show more actress, and a singer-dancer in a show band before settling into her true love of writing. She has won numerous awards for her writing. In 1995 she won Best Silhouette Romance from Romantic Times Magazine for Anything for Danny. In 1998 she also won a Career Achievement Award from Romantic Times Magazine for Best Innovative Series. She was also nominated for Best Silhouette Romance for Pregnant with His Child. Carla Cassidy is known for her First Kiss Series and The Sweet Dreams Series. Her titles include: 5 Minutes to Marriage, An Officer and a Princess, A Father's Love and Dead Certain. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Disambiguation Notice:
Carla Bracale Cassidy also writes as Carla Bracale, Carla Cassidy and Carla Cook.
Series
Works by Carla Cassidy
Safe Harbor (Harlequin online read) 3 copies
Catch of the Day 2 copies
Powerful Protectors: Keeping Baby Safe / Defending the Rancher's Daughter / Protective Measures 1 copy
Silhouette Intimate Moments 14 Random Books by various authors — Author — 1 copy
First Noelle 1 copy
une allié si attirant 1 copy
Vaid hetk 1 copy
La princesse amoureuse 1 copy
Associated Works
An Officer and a Princess — Original Text — 1 copy
Harlequin Comics Best Selection, Vol. 007 — Original Text — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Bracale Cassidy, Carla
- Other names
- Bracale, Carla
Cassidy, Carla
Cook, Carla - Birthdate
- 20th Century
- Gender
- female
- Occupations
- novelist
- Short biography
- Carla Bracale grew up in a very small town in Kansas, USA. She was a Kansas City Chiefs cheerleader and local theater actress before she packed her bags and moved to New York City with dreams of becoming a dancer and actress. She got a job performing as a singer/dancer with a show band that traveled the East coast. During her touring, she met Frank Cassidy, her husband to be. After settling down into married life and starting a family, she remembered her childhood love of writing. She has always enjoyed reading, and she believes the only thing better than reading a good book is creating a good story.
Her first book, a young adult romance, was sold in 1988 under her maiden name. Her first adult romance was sold three years later under her married name. She wrote as Carla Cook. She is an award-winning author who has written more than 80 books. In 1995 she won Best Silhouette Romance of 1995 from Romantic Times Magazine for Anything for Danny. In 1998 she also won a Career Achievement Award from Romantic Times Magazine for Best Innovative Series, and her 1998 release, Pregnant With His Child, was both a nominee for Best Silhouette Romance from Romantic Times Magazine and a RITA nominee in the Best Traditional category.
Carla lives in the US Midwest with her husband, their daugther and their dogs, Sabra and Spooky. She loves to order items she'll never use from catalogs and believes all exercise should be banned. - Nationality
- USA
- Places of residence
- Kansas, USA
- Disambiguation notice
- Carla Bracale Cassidy also writes as Carla Bracale, Carla Cassidy and Carla Cook.
- Associated Place (for map)
- Kansas, USA
Members
Reviews
I have mixed feelings about this book. The mystery/suspense kept me reading well into the night, but I wasn't really feeling the romance. Fifteen years earlier, Beau and Peyton were a couple. She was eighteen, and he was twenty-one, and they had big dreams for their future. But Beau was accused and convicted of murdering a "working girl" and sent to prison. He swore he was innocent, but Peyton was influenced by her wealthy parents, who never approved of "swamp rat" Beau. She caved into the show more pressure to believe he was guilty.
Fifteen years later, Peyton is a defense attorney who returned to her hometown to start her own firm. The last thing she expected was Beau to come to her after his release from prison. He wants her help in finding out who really killed Lacey. This is where Peyton's actions first turned me off. She still believes he's guilty and doesn't see why they should stir things up again. It isn't until he reminds her of a critical piece of evidence that she realizes he is innocent, and she finally agrees to help him. I was irritated that she had had no faith in the man she supposedly loved. Now, she's all in on uncovering the truth.
The sparks of attraction between them are still intense, but Beau is wary of getting involved with Peyton again. He is still hurt and angry over the way she abandoned him all those years ago. In addition, he's now an ex-con with a bleak future, thanks to a betrayal by his best friend. He feels there is no way he and the respected attorney can have a future together. But as they work together to clear his name, there is no denying the feelings that keep growing stronger. I liked that once she believed Peyton was all-in on the investigation and refused to back down when threatened. Their road to a future together still has a few bumps - prove Beau's innocence and convince him they have a chance to be happy.
The suspense of the story is what kept me hooked. It is evident from the start that Beau's arrest and conviction resulted from prejudice and incompetence. I liked seeing Peyton dig into the details of the case. A lot is working against them because the townspeople still believe he is guilty. There is also someone determined to stop the investigation. Attacks on Peyton and Beau increase in intensity the closer they get to identifying the murderer. The final confrontation was intense, with a twist that surprised me. I was happy to see Beau's reputation restored. show less
Fifteen years later, Peyton is a defense attorney who returned to her hometown to start her own firm. The last thing she expected was Beau to come to her after his release from prison. He wants her help in finding out who really killed Lacey. This is where Peyton's actions first turned me off. She still believes he's guilty and doesn't see why they should stir things up again. It isn't until he reminds her of a critical piece of evidence that she realizes he is innocent, and she finally agrees to help him. I was irritated that she had had no faith in the man she supposedly loved. Now, she's all in on uncovering the truth.
The sparks of attraction between them are still intense, but Beau is wary of getting involved with Peyton again. He is still hurt and angry over the way she abandoned him all those years ago. In addition, he's now an ex-con with a bleak future, thanks to a betrayal by his best friend. He feels there is no way he and the respected attorney can have a future together. But as they work together to clear his name, there is no denying the feelings that keep growing stronger. I liked that once she believed Peyton was all-in on the investigation and refused to back down when threatened. Their road to a future together still has a few bumps - prove Beau's innocence and convince him they have a chance to be happy.
The suspense of the story is what kept me hooked. It is evident from the start that Beau's arrest and conviction resulted from prejudice and incompetence. I liked seeing Peyton dig into the details of the case. A lot is working against them because the townspeople still believe he is guilty. There is also someone determined to stop the investigation. Attacks on Peyton and Beau increase in intensity the closer they get to identifying the murderer. The final confrontation was intense, with a twist that surprised me. I was happy to see Beau's reputation restored. show less
A terrific blend of suspense and romance in the final book of the Cowboys of Holiday Ranch series. The series follows twelve boys pulled from the streets and courtrooms of Oklahoma City and taken to Big Cass's Holiday Ranch. Her version of hard work and tough love turned those boys into good, honest men. I've loved following this series over the last several years and seeing those same men find love.
The last cowboy left unmarried is Mac McBride. He's a bit envious of his friends and their show more happiness but has just about accepted that he's unlikely to find love at this stage of his life. As the ranch's horse trainer, he has a reputation as a "horse whisperer" who can gentle almost any horse. He's surprised when he gets a call from local recluse Marisa, asking him to work with the starved and abused horse she rescued and named "Spirit."
Years earlier, Marisa was kidnapped off the streets and held captive for sixty days, kept naked in total darkness, tortured, and abused by her captor. When he tired of the game, he left her tied up and naked in front of the Bitterroot Post Office, but not before telling her that he would kidnap her again when he wanted to have more fun. After years away, many hours of therapy, and every self-defense class she could take, Marisa has been back home for a year. She trusts no one and lives with her guard dog in a cabin on her mother's ranch, seeing no one. When she learns of Mac's reputation with horses, she hires him to work with Spirit.
I loved watching the relationship develop between Mac and Marisa. Abused himself as a child, Mac understands both the horse and the woman. His calmness and patience as he works to earn the horse's trust also work on Marisa. Watching Mac work with Spirit gives her a sense of peace she hasn't felt since her kidnapping. The time they spend together is more than enough for Mac to begin to fall for her. There were some sweet scenes of the two of them together as Marisa slowly relaxed in his company.
But when the threats against her started up again, Marisa tried to push Mac away. She didn't want him to get hurt, but she also didn't want him to interfere with her plans. For many years, she's planned her revenge, which involves letting her tormentor get close enough for her to kill him. She's prepared for the possibility for a year, with weapons stashed around her home and confidence in her self-defense skills. Mac is horrified by her plans and fears the effect that success would have on her. Determined to protect her despite herself, Mac takes his own steps to watch over her. When it's all over, he must find a way to overcome her anger and her belief that she's still too broken for him. I loved seeing his persistence and care for her pay off in the end.
The suspense of the story was intense from the start. The first part of the book had that sense of impending doom as Marisa waited for the threats to begin. Because of where she was found the first time, she's confident that her tormentor is someone who lives in the Bitterroot area. As the threats began, she tried to hide them from Mac and keep him away. I liked how Mac insisted on getting the sheriff involved and how they tried to figure out who it was. There were several possibilities, and I was anxious to see if my suspicions were correct. The intensity increased with the escalation of the threats. I feared for Marisa when all her planning turned out to be worthless. Mac's fear for her was palpable when her captor got away with her again. The final confrontation had me on the edge of my seat until it was all over.
I also loved that the ongoing feud between Holiday Ranch and the ranch next door finally ended. From the very first book, our cowboys fought against constant vandalism, theft, and general nuisance behavior with no way to prove it. I was happy to see that the worst instigators finally got careless enough to get caught.
It was great fun to catch up with couples from previous books in the series and see how life and love have changed them. I can't wait to see what's next from the author.
#netgalley show less
The last cowboy left unmarried is Mac McBride. He's a bit envious of his friends and their show more happiness but has just about accepted that he's unlikely to find love at this stage of his life. As the ranch's horse trainer, he has a reputation as a "horse whisperer" who can gentle almost any horse. He's surprised when he gets a call from local recluse Marisa, asking him to work with the starved and abused horse she rescued and named "Spirit."
Years earlier, Marisa was kidnapped off the streets and held captive for sixty days, kept naked in total darkness, tortured, and abused by her captor. When he tired of the game, he left her tied up and naked in front of the Bitterroot Post Office, but not before telling her that he would kidnap her again when he wanted to have more fun. After years away, many hours of therapy, and every self-defense class she could take, Marisa has been back home for a year. She trusts no one and lives with her guard dog in a cabin on her mother's ranch, seeing no one. When she learns of Mac's reputation with horses, she hires him to work with Spirit.
I loved watching the relationship develop between Mac and Marisa. Abused himself as a child, Mac understands both the horse and the woman. His calmness and patience as he works to earn the horse's trust also work on Marisa. Watching Mac work with Spirit gives her a sense of peace she hasn't felt since her kidnapping. The time they spend together is more than enough for Mac to begin to fall for her. There were some sweet scenes of the two of them together as Marisa slowly relaxed in his company.
But when the threats against her started up again, Marisa tried to push Mac away. She didn't want him to get hurt, but she also didn't want him to interfere with her plans. For many years, she's planned her revenge, which involves letting her tormentor get close enough for her to kill him. She's prepared for the possibility for a year, with weapons stashed around her home and confidence in her self-defense skills. Mac is horrified by her plans and fears the effect that success would have on her. Determined to protect her despite herself, Mac takes his own steps to watch over her. When it's all over, he must find a way to overcome her anger and her belief that she's still too broken for him. I loved seeing his persistence and care for her pay off in the end.
The suspense of the story was intense from the start. The first part of the book had that sense of impending doom as Marisa waited for the threats to begin. Because of where she was found the first time, she's confident that her tormentor is someone who lives in the Bitterroot area. As the threats began, she tried to hide them from Mac and keep him away. I liked how Mac insisted on getting the sheriff involved and how they tried to figure out who it was. There were several possibilities, and I was anxious to see if my suspicions were correct. The intensity increased with the escalation of the threats. I feared for Marisa when all her planning turned out to be worthless. Mac's fear for her was palpable when her captor got away with her again. The final confrontation had me on the edge of my seat until it was all over.
I also loved that the ongoing feud between Holiday Ranch and the ranch next door finally ended. From the very first book, our cowboys fought against constant vandalism, theft, and general nuisance behavior with no way to prove it. I was happy to see that the worst instigators finally got careless enough to get caught.
It was great fun to catch up with couples from previous books in the series and see how life and love have changed them. I can't wait to see what's next from the author.
#netgalley show less
[This is an older review, written back before I used Goodreads or anything that prompted me to add ratings. I had to guess at a rating. Also, my reviewing style was a bit different back then.]
I'm pretty sure the first time I ever heard of this book was via Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. I thought the cover was Photoshopped because, well, PREGNESIA. That couldn't possibly be real, right? Wrong. The book got a C-grade, and the review pointed to lots of problems and things that wouldn't appeal to show more me, like a pregnant amnesiac heroine. I should note that I read the review almost two years before reading the book and purposefully did not reread it until after I'd finished the book. I didn't want the review fresh in my mind while I was reading. Even so, I still ended up noticing a lot of the same problems that the reviewer noticed - my notes are filled with "oh really?," "good grief," and "are you kidding me?"
One thing I did remember clearly about the review was the comments - specifically, Carla Cassidy's comment, which was a clear example of "authors behaving well." There seem to be so many authors lately who behave badly in the face of less-than-stellar reviews that this was a welcome change.
Anyhoo, I found my copy of this book at a used bookstore and snatched it up...because of its title and despite knowing that it dealt with certain tropes I wouldn't like. That was months and months ago. It wasn't until a few days ago that I found myself in need of cheesy fun, and Pregnesia seemed likely to fit the bill.
Harlequins are short, but, ever since slogging through Helen Bianchin's The Italian's Ruthless Marriage Command, I don't assume that the page count necessarily translates into "a quick read." That's why I was so grateful to discover that, whatever this book's faults, the one thing it's really good at is being fast-paced and a fairly quick read. I think this may be the first Harlequin Intrigue I've read - I don't usually buy them, because their covers tend to be so awful that I never even get as far as reading the back cover descriptions. However, judging by how action-oriented those covers tend to be, I'm guessing that "fast-paced" may be a requirement for the Harlequin Intrigue line. The next time I go used book shopping, I might have to pick up more Harlequin Intrigue books, because fast-paced romance can be a good thing at times.
If I do get more Harlequin Intrigues, however, I will try to get some that have fewer personal red flags than Pregnesia. I wasn't kidding when I said that the only thing that drew me to Pregnesia was its title. I might have been able to live with a romance novel featuring amnesia, depending on how it was handled, but an 8-month pregnant heroine - actually, a heroine who is pregnant, period - is so not my cup of tea. There is nothing I find less romantic in a romance novel than pregnant heroines, children, or babies. I will usually not even pick up a romance novel from the library (where my reading choices tend to be a bit more adventurous, since they are free) if it features any of these things, unless the author is Nora Roberts.
So, those who like or at least don't mind 8-month pregnant romance novel heroines should probably take this entire post with a grain of salt.
Like I said, this is an incredibly fast-paced story. Lucas falls in lust almost immediately, Jane (I'll call her this, even though it's not her real name) falls in lust once the head wound doesn't get in the way quite so much, and the two decide they are in love by the end of the book. Since the book's events only span maybe three or four weeks, that's a fast romance. It's a good thing that, with a title like Pregnesia, I went into this with lowered expectations.
Jane is the kind of romance heroine I tend to hate, a tiny blond with "the biggest, bluest eyes he'd ever seen." Oh, gag. She spends a lot of the book crying, and it was unclear to me whether she really wanted to stay out of danger. She repeatedly says that she doesn't want to go to the police, because she has a feeling that this will put her in even greater danger, but she has absolutely no problems with allowing Lucas to take her places she remembers having been, even though this increases her chances of coming across the dangerous people who are looking for her.
I wasn't all that impressed with Lucas, either. For a former Navy SEAL, he's awfully brainless about a lot of things. Considering that the chief of police is his friend, you'd think he would've tried harder to get Jane to agree to talk to the police. I didn't really understand why he was ok with sending a glass with Jane's fingerprints on it in to be analyzed, but he never thought to arrange a meeting between his police chief friend and Jane somewhere away from the police station.
Then there's the way Lucas dealt with all the various signs of danger. After his place is broken into, Lucas immediately realizes that people who are after Jane will soon figure out that his sister's place is the next most likely place Jane might be. Before meeting Jane, Loretta, Lucas' sister, was the most important person in his life. You'd think it would be a given that Lucas would fear for his sister's safety. Even if Jane wasn't at Loretta's place anymore, who's to say Jane's pursuers wouldn't decide to hurt Loretta or hold her hostage? But no, Lucas never even thinks about that. Instead, he hauls Jane off to a safe house and leaves his sister alone. You've gotta be kidding me.
Lucas' idiocy doesn't stop there. Instead of laying low after Jane is almost kidnapped, he takes her out to try to jog her memory with familiar places. True, I believe he has a gun on him all those times, but still. It seems overly risky, especially since 8-month pregnant Jane probably isn't mobile enough to get away from and outrun attackers, if Lucas were incapacitated or somehow separated from her. Also, taking Jane to lots of places advertises her whereabouts and who she's with to the people who are looking for her. That, combined with Lucas sometimes leaving Jane alone later on, doesn't seem very bright.
So, I was generally iffy about Jane and astounded at Lucas' partially missing brain. I also wasn't enthused by Jane's pregnancy, and not just because I don't find 8-month pregnant women to be conducive to romance. Jane is basically only pregnant in her belly. And in her lower back, although that disappears whenever it's inconvenient for her to have lower back pain. In fact, there's one part (which I can't find right now) where Lucas finds himself thinking how tiny and slender Jane is, with her pregnancy being like a ball in her belly but otherwise not affecting any other part of her appearance. That was an OMG passage for me. Jane is apparently not a pregnant woman, but rather just a woman with backaches and a basketball under her blouse. And the backaches are really just a way to ease the story into a sort-of sex scene.
One of the things I wondered when I started this book was how and whether Cassidy was actually going to include a sex scene between Jane and Lucas. Jane starts the whole thing, because Lucas, despite being totally in lust, is somewhat reluctant to make a move on a woman who obviously had a man in her life 8 months ago and may still have one in her life now. Also, he figures that Jane, being pregnant, is probably interested in a relationship rather than just sex, and Lucas is still afraid he's going to become like his abusive father.
Anyway, at one point Jane says she has a feeling that there is no longer a man in her life (right, because trusting an amnesiac to know something like that is such a good idea). Jane has Lucas rub her back because it's aching again, she moans a lot, he gets turned on, and Jane decides to move things to the next level. Lucas' resistance crumbles. The only reason Jane doesn't attempt to have actual sex with Lucas is because she has heard that sex can cause 8-month pregnant women to go into labor early. What does she do instead? A hand job. That's this book's one and only sex scene: a very pregnant woman giving a guy a hand job. You know, I don't need sex scenes in my romance novels - I think I could have done without one in this one. I had problems not rolling my eyes every time, later on in the book, either Lucas or Jane thought about how wonderful their night together was.
Oh, random thought connected to the whole "Jane is just a woman with a basketball under her blouse" thing: can an 8-month pregnant woman really "scoot" from the passenger's side of a car to the driver's side and back again? That can be hard enough to do gracefully when you're not pregnant - you'd think Jane would have had an enormously awkward time of it, if she could have even done it at all.
The last 50 or so pages of the book are just...I'm not sure I can do it justice. The book's villain seems somewhat confused about whether he wants Jane's baby or wants to kill her. If he had shot her, was his plan to then quickly cut Jane's baby out of her belly and get the baby to an on-site doctor? And when Lucas and his former Navy SEAL friends come to rescue Jane...there are so many potential problems with their "plan." They somehow manage to get hold of the floor plans to the house in just a matter of hours, and yet they don't know if the fence around the place is electrified. The number of other unknown dangers they might have had to deal with is mind-boggling. And not one of the guys seems to think about the possibility of being arrested, even though, if I remember right, one of them has a new fiancee and one of them has a pregnant wife. These guys have a lot to lose, they just don't act like they do.
Overall, this book was a quick read, which was just what I needed at the time, but not a very good one. Had Jane just been an amnesiac, and not a pregnant amnesiac, I might have been able to like this book a bit more than I did. I certainly wouldn't have been quite so turned off by the sexual interest developing between Lucas and Jane. Lucas would still have been a bit brainless, and the story still would have had occasional logic problems, but I could have just sat back and accepted it all as good, cheesy fun. As it was, yay, I can finally say I've read Pregnesia, but there is no way I'm ever rereading this. I've said it before, but I'll say it again, 8-month pregnant romance novel heroines are not my thing.
(Original review, with read-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less
I'm pretty sure the first time I ever heard of this book was via Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. I thought the cover was Photoshopped because, well, PREGNESIA. That couldn't possibly be real, right? Wrong. The book got a C-grade, and the review pointed to lots of problems and things that wouldn't appeal to show more me, like a pregnant amnesiac heroine. I should note that I read the review almost two years before reading the book and purposefully did not reread it until after I'd finished the book. I didn't want the review fresh in my mind while I was reading. Even so, I still ended up noticing a lot of the same problems that the reviewer noticed - my notes are filled with "oh really?," "good grief," and "are you kidding me?"
One thing I did remember clearly about the review was the comments - specifically, Carla Cassidy's comment, which was a clear example of "authors behaving well." There seem to be so many authors lately who behave badly in the face of less-than-stellar reviews that this was a welcome change.
Anyhoo, I found my copy of this book at a used bookstore and snatched it up...because of its title and despite knowing that it dealt with certain tropes I wouldn't like. That was months and months ago. It wasn't until a few days ago that I found myself in need of cheesy fun, and Pregnesia seemed likely to fit the bill.
Harlequins are short, but, ever since slogging through Helen Bianchin's The Italian's Ruthless Marriage Command, I don't assume that the page count necessarily translates into "a quick read." That's why I was so grateful to discover that, whatever this book's faults, the one thing it's really good at is being fast-paced and a fairly quick read. I think this may be the first Harlequin Intrigue I've read - I don't usually buy them, because their covers tend to be so awful that I never even get as far as reading the back cover descriptions. However, judging by how action-oriented those covers tend to be, I'm guessing that "fast-paced" may be a requirement for the Harlequin Intrigue line. The next time I go used book shopping, I might have to pick up more Harlequin Intrigue books, because fast-paced romance can be a good thing at times.
If I do get more Harlequin Intrigues, however, I will try to get some that have fewer personal red flags than Pregnesia. I wasn't kidding when I said that the only thing that drew me to Pregnesia was its title. I might have been able to live with a romance novel featuring amnesia, depending on how it was handled, but an 8-month pregnant heroine - actually, a heroine who is pregnant, period - is so not my cup of tea. There is nothing I find less romantic in a romance novel than pregnant heroines, children, or babies. I will usually not even pick up a romance novel from the library (where my reading choices tend to be a bit more adventurous, since they are free) if it features any of these things, unless the author is Nora Roberts.
So, those who like or at least don't mind 8-month pregnant romance novel heroines should probably take this entire post with a grain of salt.
Like I said, this is an incredibly fast-paced story. Lucas falls in lust almost immediately, Jane (I'll call her this, even though it's not her real name) falls in lust once the head wound doesn't get in the way quite so much, and the two decide they are in love by the end of the book. Since the book's events only span maybe three or four weeks, that's a fast romance. It's a good thing that, with a title like Pregnesia, I went into this with lowered expectations.
Jane is the kind of romance heroine I tend to hate, a tiny blond with "the biggest, bluest eyes he'd ever seen." Oh, gag. She spends a lot of the book crying, and it was unclear to me whether she really wanted to stay out of danger. She repeatedly says that she doesn't want to go to the police, because she has a feeling that this will put her in even greater danger, but she has absolutely no problems with allowing Lucas to take her places she remembers having been, even though this increases her chances of coming across the dangerous people who are looking for her.
I wasn't all that impressed with Lucas, either. For a former Navy SEAL, he's awfully brainless about a lot of things. Considering that the chief of police is his friend, you'd think he would've tried harder to get Jane to agree to talk to the police. I didn't really understand why he was ok with sending a glass with Jane's fingerprints on it in to be analyzed, but he never thought to arrange a meeting between his police chief friend and Jane somewhere away from the police station.
Then there's the way Lucas dealt with all the various signs of danger. After his place is broken into, Lucas immediately realizes that people who are after Jane will soon figure out that his sister's place is the next most likely place Jane might be. Before meeting Jane, Loretta, Lucas' sister, was the most important person in his life. You'd think it would be a given that Lucas would fear for his sister's safety. Even if Jane wasn't at Loretta's place anymore, who's to say Jane's pursuers wouldn't decide to hurt Loretta or hold her hostage? But no, Lucas never even thinks about that. Instead, he hauls Jane off to a safe house and leaves his sister alone. You've gotta be kidding me.
Lucas' idiocy doesn't stop there. Instead of laying low after Jane is almost kidnapped, he takes her out to try to jog her memory with familiar places. True, I believe he has a gun on him all those times, but still. It seems overly risky, especially since 8-month pregnant Jane probably isn't mobile enough to get away from and outrun attackers, if Lucas were incapacitated or somehow separated from her. Also, taking Jane to lots of places advertises her whereabouts and who she's with to the people who are looking for her. That, combined with Lucas sometimes leaving Jane alone later on, doesn't seem very bright.
So, I was generally iffy about Jane and astounded at Lucas' partially missing brain. I also wasn't enthused by Jane's pregnancy, and not just because I don't find 8-month pregnant women to be conducive to romance. Jane is basically only pregnant in her belly. And in her lower back, although that disappears whenever it's inconvenient for her to have lower back pain. In fact, there's one part (which I can't find right now) where Lucas finds himself thinking how tiny and slender Jane is, with her pregnancy being like a ball in her belly but otherwise not affecting any other part of her appearance. That was an OMG passage for me. Jane is apparently not a pregnant woman, but rather just a woman with backaches and a basketball under her blouse. And the backaches are really just a way to ease the story into a sort-of sex scene.
One of the things I wondered when I started this book was how and whether Cassidy was actually going to include a sex scene between Jane and Lucas. Jane starts the whole thing, because Lucas, despite being totally in lust, is somewhat reluctant to make a move on a woman who obviously had a man in her life 8 months ago and may still have one in her life now. Also, he figures that Jane, being pregnant, is probably interested in a relationship rather than just sex, and Lucas is still afraid he's going to become like his abusive father.
Anyway, at one point Jane says she has a feeling that there is no longer a man in her life (right, because trusting an amnesiac to know something like that is such a good idea). Jane has Lucas rub her back because it's aching again, she moans a lot, he gets turned on, and Jane decides to move things to the next level. Lucas' resistance crumbles. The only reason Jane doesn't attempt to have actual sex with Lucas is because she has heard that sex can cause 8-month pregnant women to go into labor early. What does she do instead? A hand job. That's this book's one and only sex scene: a very pregnant woman giving a guy a hand job. You know, I don't need sex scenes in my romance novels - I think I could have done without one in this one. I had problems not rolling my eyes every time, later on in the book, either Lucas or Jane thought about how wonderful their night together was.
Oh, random thought connected to the whole "Jane is just a woman with a basketball under her blouse" thing: can an 8-month pregnant woman really "scoot" from the passenger's side of a car to the driver's side and back again? That can be hard enough to do gracefully when you're not pregnant - you'd think Jane would have had an enormously awkward time of it, if she could have even done it at all.
The last 50 or so pages of the book are just...I'm not sure I can do it justice. The book's villain seems somewhat confused about whether he wants Jane's baby or wants to kill her. If he had shot her, was his plan to then quickly cut Jane's baby out of her belly and get the baby to an on-site doctor? And when Lucas and his former Navy SEAL friends come to rescue Jane...there are so many potential problems with their "plan." They somehow manage to get hold of the floor plans to the house in just a matter of hours, and yet they don't know if the fence around the place is electrified. The number of other unknown dangers they might have had to deal with is mind-boggling. And not one of the guys seems to think about the possibility of being arrested, even though, if I remember right, one of them has a new fiancee and one of them has a pregnant wife. These guys have a lot to lose, they just don't act like they do.
Overall, this book was a quick read, which was just what I needed at the time, but not a very good one. Had Jane just been an amnesiac, and not a pregnant amnesiac, I might have been able to like this book a bit more than I did. I certainly wouldn't have been quite so turned off by the sexual interest developing between Lucas and Jane. Lucas would still have been a bit brainless, and the story still would have had occasional logic problems, but I could have just sat back and accepted it all as good, cheesy fun. As it was, yay, I can finally say I've read Pregnesia, but there is no way I'm ever rereading this. I've said it before, but I'll say it again, 8-month pregnant romance novel heroines are not my thing.
(Original review, with read-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less
I'm a sucker for cowboys, don't know why, but I am. I even devoured Louis L'Amour books in high school. Anyway, this one had all the hero factor he needed to make this story work. Melanie's health issues came on very fast, and at times (just the beginning) I wondered if they could come on that fast, but in the end I didn't even care. The chemistry between her and Adam was wonderful,
My favorite part of the story though was the suspense. How creepy to know someone is watching you, judging show more you--and then deciding that you don't get to live. I loved that Adam brought out Melanie's own strength. He was the hero by helping her realize that she could save herself. That's something girls don't get a lot of these days--you can be beautiful, feminine and strong as nails. show less
My favorite part of the story though was the suspense. How creepy to know someone is watching you, judging show more you--and then deciding that you don't get to live. I loved that Adam brought out Melanie's own strength. He was the hero by helping her realize that she could save herself. That's something girls don't get a lot of these days--you can be beautiful, feminine and strong as nails. show less
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